నైరూప్య

Essential Oils Composition and Cytotoxic Effect of Lagerstroemia speciosa Linn flowers

Priya T Thambi, Sabu MC, Jolly I Chungath

The chemical compositions of essential oils from Lagerstroemia speciosa L flowers obtained by hydrodistillation yielded 0.085% and was analysed by GC and GC-MS. Out of forty five compounds identified the major volatiles in flowers were α-pinene, myrcene, α-terpineol, a β-bisabolene etc. Our findings demonstrate for the first time the potential benefits of this medicinal plant flower as a rich source of high therapeutic value compounds for medicines, cosmetics, supplements and as a health food. As concerning volatile fraction, that can be often a helpful tool to discriminate between different taxa also. Cytotoxicity assay was carried out using Dalton’s Lymphoma Ascites cells (DLA) and Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma cells (EAC). L. speciosa essential oil at a concentration of 50 μL/mL produced 13.33% and 31% cytotoxicity to DLA and EAC cells respectively.